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magazine Rolling Stone
usinfo | 2013-06-26 15:47
| Rolling Stone | |
 Cee Lo Green, Adam Levine, Christina Aguilera, and Blake Shelton, on the cover of the February 1, 2012, issue of Rolling Stone |
|
| Editor |
JannWenner Will Dana (managing editor) |
| Categories | Music magazine |
| Frequency | Bi-weekly |
| Publisher | JannWenner |
|
Total circulation (2012) |
1,464,943 |
| First issue | November 9, 1967 (1967-11-09) |
| Company | Wenner MediaLLC |
| Country | United States |
| Based in | New York City, United States |
| Language | English |
| Website | www.RollingStone.com |
| ISSN | 0035-791X |
Rolling Stone is an American magazine published every two weeks and focused on music, liberal politics, and popular culture. In 1967, Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco, California, by JannWenner – who is still the magazine's chief editor – and music critic, Ralph J. Gleason.
Rolling Stone was known for its musical coverage and for political reporting by the enigmatic and controversial gonzo journalist, Hunter S. Thompson. In the 1990s, the magazine changed its format to appeal to a younger readership interested in youth-oriented television shows, film actors, and popular music. This led to criticism that the magazine was emphasizing style over substance.
In recent years, the magazine has resumed its traditional mix of content, including in-depth political stories. It also has expanded content to include acclaimed coverage of financial and banking issues. As a result, the magazine has seen its circulation increase and its reporters invited as experts to network television programs of note.[3]
Contents
Beginnings
To get the magazine off the ground, Wenner borrowed $7,500 from his family members and from the family of his soon-to-be wife, Michell Palmer.[4] The first issue carried a cover date of November 9, 1967.[5]Rolling Stone magazine, named after the Muddy Waters song "Rollin' Stone" (1950),[6] was initially identified with and reported on the hippiecounterculture of the era. However, the magazine distanced itself from the underground newspapers of the time, such as Berkeley Barb, embracing more traditional journalistic standards and avoiding the radical politics of the underground press. In the very first edition of the magazine, Wenner wrote that Rolling Stone "is not just about the music, but about the things and attitudes that music embraces." This has become the de factomotto of the magazine.
In the 1970s, Rolling Stone began to make a mark for its political coverage, with the likes of gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson writing for the magazine's political section. Thompson would first publish his most famous work Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas within the pages of Rolling Stone, where he remained a contributing editor until his death in 2005. In the 1970s, the magazine also helped launch the careers of many prominent authors, including Cameron Crowe, Lester Bangs, Joe Klein, Joe Eszterhas, Patti Smith and P. J. O'Rourke. It was at this point that the magazine ran some of its most famous stories, including that of the Patty Hearst abduction odyssey. One interviewer, speaking for large numbers of his peers, said that he bought his first copy of the magazine upon initial arrival on his college campus, which he described as a "rite of passage".[2]
During the 1980s the magazine began to shift focus towards being a general "entertainment" magazine. Music was still a dominant topic but there was increasing coverage of celebrities in television, films and the pop culture of the day. The magazine also initiated its annual "Hot Issue" during this time.
The printed format has gone through several changes. The first publications in 1967–72, were folded tabloid newspaper format, no staples with black ink text, and a single color highlight that changed each edition. From 1973 on, editions were done on a four-color press with a different newsprint paper size. In 1979 the bar code appeared. In 1980 it became a gloss paper large format 10 x 12 magazine. As of October 30, 2008 edition, Rolling Stone is a smaller, standard-format magazine size. (USA Today,[volume & issue needed]Associated PressAnickJesdanun)
On November 5, 2012 the magazine published its first cover in the Spanish language as recognition to the influence of Latino artists in American culture.
Criticism
One major criticism of Rolling Stone involves its generational bias toward the 1960s and 1970s. One critic referred to the Rolling Stone list of the "99 Greatest Songs" as an example of "unrepentant rockistfogeyism".[7] In further response to this issue, rock critic Jim DeRogatis, a former Rolling Stone editor, published a thorough critique of the magazine's lists in a book called Kill Your Idols: A New Generation of Rock Writers Reconsiders the Classics (ISBN 1-56980-276-9), which featured differing opinions from many younger critics.[8] Conservative columnist Jonah Goldbergcriticised the magazine writing that "Rolling Stone has essentially become the house organ of the Democratic National Committee."[9]Rolling Stone editor JannWenner has made all of his political donations to Democrats.
Hunter S. Thompson, in an article that can be found in his book Generation of Swine, criticized the magazine for turning against marijuana even though the magazine embraced it in the 60s and 70s when Thompson was a frequent contributor.
Rolling Stone magazine has been criticized for reconsidering many classic albums that it had previously dismissed and for frequent abuse of the 3.5 star rating. Examples of artists for whom this is the case include, among others, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, AC/DC, The Beach Boys, Nirvana, Weezer, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith, Outkast and also Queen. For example, Led Zeppelin was largely written off by Rolling Stone magazine critics during the band's most active years in the 1970s. However by 2006, a cover story on Led Zeppelin honored them as "the Heaviest Band of All Time".[11] A critic for Slate magazine described a conference at which 1984's The Rolling Stone Record Guide was scrutinized. As he described it, "The guide virtually ignored hip-hop and ruthlessly panned heavy metal, the two genres that within a few years would dominate the pop charts. In an auditorium packed with music journalists, you could detect more than a few anxious titters: How many of us will want our record reviews read back to us 20 years hence?"[7] Another example of this bias was that the album Nevermind, by grunge band Nirvana, was given three stars in its original review, despite being placed at No. 17 in "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list in 2003. Also, when The Beatles' Let It Be was released in 1970, the magazine originally gave the album a poor review, yet in 2003, Rolling Stone ranked it number 86 in the magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
The hire of former FHM editor Ed Needham further enraged critics who alleged that Rolling Stone had lost its credibility.
The 2003 Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time article's inclusion of only two female musicians resulted in Venus Zine answering with their own list entitled, "The Greatest Female Guitarists of All Time".
Renewed relevance
After years of declining readership, the magazine experienced a major resurgence of interest and relevance with the work of two young journalists in the late 2000s: Michael Hastings and Matt Taibbi.
In 2009, Taibbi unleashed a scathing series of acclaimed reporting on the financial meltdown. He famously dubbed Goldman Sachs "The Great Vampire Squid."
Bigger headlines came at the end of June 2010. Rolling Stone caused a controversy in the White House by publishing in the July issue an article by journalist Michael Hastings, entitled, "The Runaway General",[15] quoting criticism of General Stanley A. McChrystal, commander of the International Security Assistance Force and U.S. Forces-Afghanistan commander, about Vice President Joe Biden and other Administration members of the White House. McChrystal resigned from his position shortly after his statements went public.
In 2010, Taibbi documented illegal and fraudulent actions by banks in the foreclosure courts after traveling to Jacksonville, Florida and sitting in on hearings in the courtroom. His article, Invasion of the Home Snatchers also documented attempts by the judge to intimidate a homeowner fighting foreclosure and the attorney Taibbi accompanied into the court.
In January 2012, the magazine ran exclusive excerpts from Hastings' book just prior to publication. The book, The Operators: The Wild and Terrifying Inside Story of America’s War in Afghanistan, provided a much more expansive look at McChrystal and the culture of senior American military and how they get embroiled in these wars. It has been described as a boozy, sexy account of the misadventures of America's most notorious killers.[citation needed] The book reached Amazon's bestseller list in the first 48 hours of release, and it received generally favorable reviews. Salon's Glenn Greenwald described it as "superb," "brave" and "eye-opening."
In 2012 financial scandals also continued to rock the world. Taibbi emerged as an expert who could explain the events as they unfolded. His articles garnered him invitations to nationally broadcast television programs.[23][24] In a July discussion of the Libor revelations, Taibbi's coverage [25] was singled out by Dennis Kelleher, president of Better Markets, Inc., as becoming required reading to remain informed.
Website
Rolling Stone has maintained a website for many years, with selected current articles, reviews, blogs, MP3s, and other features such as searchable and free encyclopedic articles about artists, with images and sometimes sound clips of their work. The articles and reviews are sometimes in a revised form from the versions that are published. There are also selected archival political and cultural articles and entries. The site also at one time had an extensive message board forum. By the late 1990s, the message board forum at the site had developed into a thriving community with a large number of regular members and contributors worldwide. The site was also plagued with numerous Internet trolls and malicious code-hackers who vandalized the forum substantially.[26]Rolling Stone abruptly deleted the forum in May 2004. Rolling Stone began a new, much more limited message board community at their site in late 2005, only to remove it again in 2006. Rolling Stone also has a page at MySpace, Facebook, and Twitter. In March 2008, the Rolling Stone website started a new message board section once again, then deleted it in April 2010. The magazine devotes one of its Table of Contents pages to promoting material currently appearing at its website, listing detailed links to the items.
As of April 19, 2010, the website has been updated drastically and features the complete archives of Rolling Stone.[27] The archive was first launched under a for-pay model, but has since transitioned to a free-with-print-subscription model.[28] In the spring of 2012, Rolling Stone also launched a federated search feature which searches both the website and the archive.
Restaurant
In December 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported that the owners of Rolling Stone magazine planned to open a Rolling Stone restaurant in the Hollywood & Highland Center in Hollywood, California in the spring of 2010.[30] The expectation was that the restaurant could become the first of a national chain if it was successful.[31] As of November 2010, the "soft opening" of the restaurant was planned for December 2010.[32] According to its website, the restaurant is now open for lunch and dinner as well as a full night club downstairs on the weekends.[33] However, the restaurant closed around February 2013.
Notable staff
• Robert Altman
• Michael Azerrad
• Lester Bangs
• Robert Christgau
• Brian Cookman
• Timothy Crouse
• Cameron Crowe
• Anthony DeCurtis
• Jancee Dunn
• Joe Eszterhas
• Owen Fegan
• Timothy Ferris
• Ben Fong-Torres
• David Fricke
• Ralph J. Gleason
• William Greider
• Michael Hastings
• Jerry Hopkins
• Caroline Kennedy
• Joe Klein
• David LaChapelle
• Jon Landau
• Annie Leibovitz
• Steven Levy
• Kurt Loder
• Greil Marcus
• Paul Nelson
• P. J. O'Rourke
• Rob Sheffield
• Ralph Steadman
• Neil Strauss
• Matt Taibbi
• Hunter S. Thompson
• Touré
• Peter Travers
• JannWenner
• Baron Wolman
• Evan Wright
In popular culture
• "The Cover of the Rolling Stone" is a 1973 song satirizing success in the music business. It was first recorded by Dr. Hook &The Medicine Show, who subsequently did get on the cover of the magazine, albeit in caricature rather than a photograph.
• George Harrison's 1975 song "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)", a lyrical sequel to his Beatles track "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", references the magazine in its second verse: "Learned to get up when I fall / Can even climb Rolling Stone walls". The song was written in response to some unduly harsh reviews from Rolling Stone and other publications for Harrison's 1974 North American tour and the Dark Horse album.[35][36]
• In Stephen King's 1980 novel Firestarter, the protagonist chooses Rolling Stone as an unbiased independent media source, through which she can expose the government agency hunting her. However, in the film adaptation, the protagonist chooses The New York Times.
• 1985 film Perfect depicts John Travolta as a reporter for Rolling Stone, covering the health club fad of the time. JannWenner plays editor-in-chief "Mark Roth".
• 2000 film Almost Famous portrayed fictional 15-year-old aspiring rock journalist writing for Rolling Stone. The semi-autobiographical film was written and directed by former Rolling Stone columnist Cameron Crowe and featured portrayals of publisher JannWenner (Eion Bailey), editor Ben Fong-Torres (Terry Chen), David Felton (Rainn Wilson) and others in Rolling Stone's 1970s San Francisco offices. Wenner also had a cameo in the film as a man reading a newspaper in a taxi.
• 2002 song, Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous by pop punk band Good Charlotte refer to the excesses of modern celebrities and the influence of the magazine, in the first verse: "All they do is piss and moan / Inside the Rolling Stone / Talking about how hard life can be"
Covers
See also: List of people who have appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone
Some artists have graced the cover many times, some of these pictures going on to become iconic. The Beatles, for example, have appeared on the cover more than thirty times, either individually or as a band.[37] The first ten issues featured, in order of appearance, the following:
• John Lennon
• Tina Turner
• The Beatles
• Jimi Hendrix, Donovan&Otis Redding
• Jim Morrison
• Janis Joplin
• Jimi Hendrix
• Monterey Pop Festival
• John Lennon&Paul McCartney
• Eric Clapton
